


a single red rose

by squishpunk



Category: Uta no Prince-sama
Genre: Love Confessions, M/M, Secret Admirer, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-16 15:39:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14814171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/squishpunk/pseuds/squishpunk
Summary: It was the one day of the year that Ranmaru was able to let his feelings reach Reiji.





	a single red rose

Could Ranmaru say that he’d had experience in love? To put it simply, no. But the answer really depended on what one would consider to be love experience. If you were going to go with the most basic definition that Ranmaru had actually been in one or more romantic relationships in the past, then no. If “love experience” could be as simple as just having _been_ in love, then yeah, he was experienced. And if having pined after one particular person for four years that you were forbidden from being with in all walks of life qualified as “love experience”…

Well, if that were the case, Ranmaru was a fucking love pro.

The minute Ranmaru felt it, he began hoping and praying that it would go away. From the first day Shining Saotome had called the four of them into his office and told him that from that day forward, they were Quartet Night, he had found himself dumbfounded by long brown hair, warm grey eyes, and a stupid smile that he wanted to punch in almost as badly as he yearned to kiss the corners of. It only got worse from there. Every morning, he’d wake up hoping that maybe today was the day he would fall out of love with Reiji Kotobuki. What good could he get out of being in love with Reiji, anyways? Their contracts forbade them from being together, his family’s history forbade them from being together, and the fact that he wasn’t even sure of Reiji’s preferences didn’t necessarily forbid them from being together, but it sure as hell didn’t offer any bits of hope. _Everything would be so much easier without Reiji_ , Ranmaru thought to himself as he carefully slid his purple contact into his left eye each morning.

And then Reiji would pass by him and say good morning, and Ranmaru was _fucked_.

One morning in particular, Reiji burst into Ranmaru’s room without knocking, in typical obnoxious Reiji-fashion, while Ranmaru was in the midst of styling his hair. The bassist was tempted to slap the shit out of him for not having a basic understanding of privacy, but his gratitude that Reiji was the first thing he saw that morning overpowered his anger. He could only outwardly display one of those emotions, though.

“Special delivery foooor Ranmaru Kurosaki~!”

“Do ya fuckin’ MIND!?” Ranmaru shouted, rubbing gel into his thick silver locks to create little spikes.

“ _Mengo, mengo_!”

“What the fuck does that even mean. You say it all the damn time and it’s not even a real fucking word.” Ranmaru twisted his face into his best scowl and turned towards Reiji in all of his half-spiky, half-fluffy glory. “What kind of _special delivery_ is it, anyways?”

“Don’t tell me you forgot, Ran-Ran!” Reiji said, pushing a rather large flower stand through Ranmaru’s door as best as he could without knocking anything off of the display (he lost a few petals at most). The flowers were all a deep shade of red, but it was still rather busy to look at despite the lack of diversity in color. Heart shaped balloons sprouted from the display, boxes of chocolates and envelopes addressed to Ranmaru tucked snugly between clusters of crimson roses. _Of course_. “It’s Valentine’s Day! This is all of our lovely girls’ way of showing us how much they appreciate us. Boys too, even!”

How could Ranmaru forget? Then again, it wasn’t like he particularly cared for sweets. Or flowers, for that matter. Or confessions of love from “admirers” that _thought_ they loved him just because they loved his face and his voice, but they really just loved the idea of him, because you can’t love someone you don’t know and none of them knew him. Or commercial holidays that were implanted by large corporations to sell products under the guise that it was a day to be showing your loved ones how much you care for them, when really, you should be doing that every goddamn day.

Still, though, it was the one day of the year that Ranmaru was able to let his feelings reach Reiji. Granted, Reiji didn’t know whose feelings they were, but he at least knew they were someone’s. And Ranmaru could make Reiji happy without anyone questioning it.

And he’d fucking forgotten it.

_Shit._

Then again, Reiji had probably had nothing short of hundreds of flowers, chocolates, plush toys and letters to sift through. Maybe he wouldn’t notice.

“Just leave that by my bed,” Ranmaru called out nonchalantly, reaching for his mascara once his hair had reached what he deemed to be the perfect amount of spikiness.

“Mhm!” Despite the respectable size of the display, Reiji managed to shuffle all the way over to Ranmaru’s bedside, but not without some fight. The brunette grinned, running a finger along the curve of a metallic heart shaped balloon. “My, my, seems like Ran-Ran’s been getting a bit more popular with our girls and boys. I’m almost jealous!”

 _God_ , could that man _be_ any more insufferable? And could Ranmaru be any more enamored with him? After carefully applying some last few strokes of mascara onto his bottom eyelid, he stepped out of his bathroom to actually speak to Reiji face-to-face. “Quiet, you. You’re ten times more popular than any of us. Not like it fuckin’ matters, anyways - I mean, how can these people say they love us? They haven’t even _met_ us. They love our music, sure, but they can’t love _us_. All we are to them are names and faces on TV, Reiji.”

“Hmmm… I don’t know how true that is, Ran-Ran! What about Bo-chan?”

Ranmaru’s eyebrow twitched, but he fought to keep a neutral expression.

“Which reminds me… I don’t think Bo-chan sent me anything this year.” Reiji pouted, coiling a lock of chocolate brown hair around his index finger.

 _Oh fuck, yeah, he noticed_. Ranmaru snorted and suddenly became intently focused on his display, neglecting to look at Reiji at _absolutely all_ costs. “So what. Maybe he finally came to his senses and realized he can do a lot better than you.”

“Ehh, don’t say that! I’d miss receiving h-” Reiji stopped mid-sentence. “Wait. _He_? How are you so sure that Bo-chan is a boy, Ran-Ran?”

_Holy mother fucking shit Ranmaru you shit idiot._

Ignoring the dryness in his throat and the heat rising on the back of his neck, Ranmaru let out a cough, trying to make it sound natural. “Pretty sure Bo is a male name. It’s French.” Was that even fucking true? Who knew? Not Ranmaru. But hey, it worked.

“Well, regardless of their gender, Valentine’s Day is gonna feel a little bit more lonely without their gifts!”

Ranmaru shrugged. “Maybe they’re dating someone now, who the hell knows.”

“Ah… how cute! I hope Bo-chan is happy with someone. They deserve it.” Reiji smiled softly. “Sorry I couldn’t be that person, Bo-chan…”

Ranmaru’s jaw clenched. “You’re acting stupid. Can I please have my room back, now?”

“Of course!” With that stupid fucking smile that made Ranmaru weak at his knees, Reiji trotted out of the room, but didn’t take his leave before leaning against the doorframe and calling out, “Hey, happy Valentine’s Day, Ran-Ran.”

Turning his back so he wouldn’t have to face the man who owned his heart, Ranmaru felt heat rising in his face, but couldn’t find it in him to respond harshly or coldly. Rather, he cleared his throat and responded with a grunt of, “Yeah. You too.”

~ ~ ~

“Ah, Bo-san, you came after all! I almost thought you wouldn’t show up.”

Ranmaru flashed a crooked smile at Yamada, the kind old man who owned the flower shop that he’d been visiting every Valentine’s Day for the past four years. Hearing the giddish jingle of the bell as Ranmaru closed the door tightly behind him, Yamada’s cat bounded over to her visitor and rubbed herself against his pant leg. Typical of Ranmaru, he bent down to stroke her grey fur. “Yeah, I’ve been getting caught up with work. It’s hard in this industry. I can barely have any time to myself.”

“Ah, but we always manage to make time for the ones we love, don’t we?”

Ranmaru shrugged. “I’m doing all I can.”

Yamada ambled over to a bucket overflowing with dark red roses, plucking only a single one out of the massive bouquet. Ranmaru had visited the shop often enough for Yamada to know what he wanted without even having to ask. “Have you taken any breaks recently, Ranmaru?”

He cocked an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

Yamada reached for a piece of twine, beginning to carefully wrap it around the thin stem of the rose. “I can’t say I don’t understand how you’re feeling. My daughter is getting married this year, and it seems as though when she isn’t planning for her wedding, she’s either working or, less commonly, sleeping. It can always be hard to take some time to yourself when you have so many other obligations, but here’s what I have to say to you, Ranmaru. Find any time slot where you don’t have anything to do, and do something for yourself. Take a walk, do some household chores, maybe even smoke a cigarette. If you take time to collect yourself, it will be much easier for you to tell Reiji-san how you really feel about him.”

“I don’t know about that.” Ranmaru leaned against the counter. “It’s such a mess, everything about our relationship is forbidden. It’s like something straight out of a soap opera… there’s really no point to me confessing.”

“Oh, but I wouldn’t jump to such a conclusion so easily.” Yamada smiled at him warmly. “Love always finds a way, Ranmaru.” He threaded the twine through a slip of construction paper and grabbed a pen. “Now, what would you like this one to say, _Bo-san_?”

Bo. Ranmaru’s alias. An acronym for “black orchid,” or the English translation of the _kuro_ from his surname and the _ran_ from his first. He’d make Yamada write the notes for him so that Reiji wouldn’t recognize the handwriting - notes containing things only those who really knew Reiji would know about him. Things fans wouldn’t. He would get flustered at first when telling Yamada what to carefully scrawl onto the note, but at this point, Yamada was a friend of his. There was no need to be embarrassed anymore. He cleared his throat.

“Reiji - I wish everyone could see the softer side of you. The one who plays with his hair when there’s something on his mind. You’re more than meets the eye, and that’s what I love the most about you.”

Yamada lifted his pen as he finished carefully scrawling the thoughtful message onto the small card, signing it off by curling the black ink into the shape of a heart. He tied the twine into a little knot so that the card dangled off the stem of the rose like a koinobori, and handed it to Ranmaru, smiling. “I know Reiji-san will appreciate it.”

The bassist took the rose, and began to rummage through his pockets for change, before being interrupted with a sound of, “No, no. It’s on me this time. You’ve been coming here long enough for me to start to feel bad taking your money. Consider it a gift.”

Ranmaru felt an involuntary grin of gratitude tugging at the corners of his lips, but bowed his head in thanks before it spread over his entire face. “Thank you, Yamada. Give your daughter my regards too, please.”

“I will. And don’t forget about me after Reiji finds you out.”

~ ~ ~

Closing the apartment door tightly behind him, Ranmaru quickly checked for any sign of housemates present (mostly Reiji, because if he were found out by Ai or Camus, they probably wouldn’t care enough to say anything, other than maybe Camus calling him a fool for his pursuit of love when their careers strictly forbade it, but that didn’t matter to him so as long as no messages were relayed to Reiji). It seemed as if the house were empty. Sighing in relief, he ambled over to the pile of gifts spread across the dining room table. Some empty candy wrappers and ripped-open envelopes were littered around the setup, but probably at least half of the presents had remained unopened - Reiji was popular, after all, and had probably gotten tired halfway into sifting through his valentines. Ranmaru slid the rose carefully into a rather large cluster of white roses, making sure the tag was still visible, although it probably stood out enough as the only spot of red among a sea of white. If Reiji asked where it came from, Ranmaru would just comment on how clever Bo was to hide his gift in a place where it wouldn’t be so obvious, and then call Reiji a dumbass for being unobservant and missing it before. _You’re a fucking genius, Ranmaru_.

“Ran-Ran?”

_Actually never fucking mind you’re a damn idiot. The fuck’s wrong with you._

He erected his spine as if there was a string attached to it that someone had pulled upwards, a sudden heat spreading over his ears, cheeks, shoulders, and neck.

Reiji seemed oblivious to the utter _shame_ Ranmaru was feeling, maybe due to the fact that Ranmaru absolutely _refused_ to turn around and face him. He just kept talking to him as if he’d caught him doing any normal thing on any normal day. “Where’d you run off to?”

“Uh… you know… work… stuff.”

“Hm. Whatcha got there?”

“I… what?”

“You’re sifting through my Valentine’s Day gifts. What gives?”

He grunted in exasperation. “Mind your business.”

“Speak for yourself, you’re the one going through _my_ gifts! C’mooon, I’m not gonna be mad, I’m just curious!” Before Ranmaru could protest, Reiji was at his side, peering at the pile and scouring for whatever could be so interesting that it had captured Ranmaru’s attention.

“Ah, it looks like Bo-chan did send me a rose after all!” Reiji plucked the single red rose out of the bouquet, and Ranmaru felt as if he were right next to an open fire. He read the note aloud and then squealed girlishly, holding it to his chest. “How cute! Whoever this Bo is, they seem to really know me well, hm?” Reiji turned to his bandmate, his face filled with childish joy. “Do _you_ know who Bo-chan is, Ran-Ran?”

Beads of sweat began to line the younger man’s forehead. “ _What_? Why would _I_ know who Bo is, Reiji? What would even prompt you to ask tha-”

“Hmm… I dunno! I saw you put the rose in with my gifts, so I thought maybe Bo had given it to you and told you to deliver it to me!”

 _Holy. Fucking. Shit._ Reiji _had_ seen him. If a God existed and decided to send a lightning bolt straight through Ranmaru’s chest right at that moment, killing him instantly, the bassist would have no objections. Thinking on his feet, he choked out what he _prayed_ to be a believable reply of, “I just saw it lying outside on the doormat and decided to bring it in for you.”

“Hm… the doormat to our apartment?”

“Mhm.”

“So… the one right outside _that_ door.” Reiji pointed to the door that led to the hallway.

“Yup, that exact one.”

“That makes it a lot easier to find out who Bo-chan is, then. You can’t get into this building if you don’t live in it! Thanks for your help, Ran-Ran.”

_FUCK._

“And I think I have a good lead already!”

“Wh-Whatever, I don’t care. While you’re out here playing secret agent, I think I’m just gonna head back to my room and -”

As Ranmaru began to turn away, he felt a small hand grasping his, and then, before he could even ask Reiji what the _hell_ he was doing, his body was spun around, and then he was pulled to Reiji’s height, and suddenly Reiji’s lips were against his.

Ranmaru’s eyes widened at first, and all he could see in front of him was a blur of chocolate hair and fair skin. Reiji’s lips were soft, and they tasted like citrus. After letting himself become used to the sensation, which took maybe five seconds, he allowed his eyelids to flutter closed as he returned the gesture, even going as far as to bring his hand to cup Reiji’s cheek. A lot of things were going through his mind at that moment, but one of them prevailed over all of his other thoughts, and that thing was _Reiji, Reiji, Reiji, Reiji._

Ranmaru hadn’t been counting, but the kiss felt like it lasted forever until Reiji finally pulled away. The shorter man smirked, lacing his fingers through the hand he had grabbed and giving it an affectionate squeeze. “Your lips are a bit chapped, _Bo-chan_. I’d suggest using lip balm.”

Mismatched eyes darted to their interlocked hands. “Am… I really that obvious?”

“Hm, you certainly had me at a loss for the past four years. But seeing you put that rose away was like an epiphany. And if you weren’t Bo-chan, you wouldn’t have kissed me back like that!”

Despite himself, Ranmaru smirked, even going as far as to bend forward to kiss Reiji on the forehead quickly. “Mhm, guilty as charged.”

Reiji giggled in response to the kiss, leaning deeper into Ranmaru. “Well then, what do you say to being my valentine this year, Bo-chan- I mean, Ran-Ran?”

Ranmaru quirked a brow. “ _Just_ this year?”

“ _And_ every year after this one, if you’ll let me!” Just as Ranmaru had described in his note, Reiji curled a lock of hair around his index finger, rubbing at it with his thumb. “I… I know our careers won’t allow it, but… I feel the same way about you, Ran-Ran. For quite some time, I have. And doesn’t a secret romance sound a little bit exciting to you?”

“Hmm… normally, I’d say no.” Ranmaru reached forward and tucked a stray strand of hair behind Reiji’s ear, dragging his hand down to rest at the smaller man’s shoulder. “But being yours doesn’t sound so bad. And I’ll do that in any way possible.”

“So it’s settled.” Reiji lifted their hands to his lips, kissing Ranmaru’s pale knuckles. “Care to share some Valentine’s Day chocolates with me?”

Ranmaru grunted. “Please, I already have enough of my own to get through, and I don’t even like chocolate to begin with. I usually just throw ‘em all out.”

“Hmmm… then a date in my room, maybe?”

The taller man smiled, curling an arm around his lover’s shoulders. “Lead the way.”


End file.
